Reciting the Hundred Syllable Mantra 100 Billion Times Collectively

In February 2017 (the Month of Miracles in the Tibetan Year of the Fire Rooster), Khenchen Sherab Zangpo Rinpoche initiated a group practice on Vajrasattva to collect 100 billion times of the hundred-syllable-mantra recitation. The sadhana of the practice follows the Tantra of Immaculate Confession. People joining in the group practice are expected to recite the mantra at least 100,000 times within one year after registration. Those who aspire to recite more than 400,000 times can finish the practice within two years.

Countless Dharma methods of purification are available to eliminate karmic obscurations, but the best of them all is meditation and recitation related to Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva is the sovereign of all buddha families and mandalas. When practicing Buddhadharma to attain complete enlightenment, Vajrasattva made the following vow: “In the future, when I reach perfect Buddhahood, may those who have committed the five crimes with immediate retribution, or anyone who has transgressed or broken the tantric samayas, be purified entirely of all their harmful actions and violations merely by hearing my name, thinking of me, or reciting the one hundred syllables, the most majestic of all the secret mantras. Until this is brought about, may I remain without awakening; may I be present before all those with impairments and breaches of vows and samaya commitments, and may I purify all their obscurations.”

The hundred syllable mantra is the most effective means to cleanse all negative actions and obscurations. If one recites the mantra 100,000 times in the right way, one can purify even downfalls related to violations and breaches of the root samayas. In the tantras, however, it is said that one must multiply the recitations by four to achieve complete purification in the Degenerate Age. His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche also mentioned that people of our time need to recite the hundred syllable mantra 400,000 times due to more negative karma. Doing so can cleanse all of our harmful actions and obscurations.

By August 2017, more than 70 billion recitations of the mantra had been registered. People who have participated in this practice include both monastic members and lay practitioners. His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche said, “It is a superior way of accruing merit and virtue if we practice together with the Sanghas who observe monastic vows. It is also a swift path to our rebirth in the Pure Land.”